• Contact us
  • Cookie Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • DMCA
  • Get the latest Health and Fitness News on
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
Your Fitness News Today
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Fitness
  • Mental Health
  • Skincare
  • Weight Loss
  • Workout
  • Nutrition
  • Yoga
  • Home
  • Fitness
  • Mental Health
  • Skincare
  • Weight Loss
  • Workout
  • Nutrition
  • Yoga
No Result
View All Result
Your Fitness News Today
No Result
View All Result

Defining Yoga | Hugger Mugger Yoga Products

March 27, 2025
in Yoga
58 4
0
Home Yoga
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


You might also like

This Wall Yoga Practice Makes a Standard Flow More Accessible

20 Essential Yoga Books

The Moon Salutation Is a Grounding Sister to the Sun Salutation

This entry was posted on Mar 5, 2025 by Charlotte Bell.

Defining Yoga | Hugger Mugger Yoga Products

What is yoga? Good question. And you’re not likely to get a concrete answer. When a philosophy has been around as long as yoga has, perhaps 5,000 to 6,000 years (even that is debatable), defining yoga is liable to be tricky.

The yoga that’s most popular in the West, Hatha Yoga, is one of five—or six—branches, depending on who you talk to. Each branch represents an aspect of human life. While many practitioners focus most of their energies on a single branch, there is overlap as well. For example, practicing raja yoga (meditation) may make us more conscientious about our actions (karma yoga). In the same way, hatha yoga or bhakti yoga (devotion) can make raja yoga more accessible. And so on.

Below are very brief synopses of the branches of yoga. Each branch could be an area for committed lifelong study, so these few sentences I offer do not do them justice. I encourage you to explore these branches on your own.

5 Branches of Yoga

  • Hatha Yoga: This is the branch that most Western practitioners are familiar with. Hatha Yoga is the practice of physical postures combined with breathing practices. The intention is to harmonize the nervous system in order to create the conditions for the mind to settle. In subsequent posts, I’ll delve more deeply into this.
  • Bhakti Yoga: This branch is most often associated with devotion, the ability to see the divine in all of creation. It is yoga of the heart. At an elemental level, it is also the practice of channeling our emotions in service of something larger than ourselves. Chanting—alone (bhajan) or in community (kirtan)—is fundamental to bhakti yoga, as a way to transcend the ego.
  • Raja Yoga: Raja yoga is mainly concerned with the taming of the mind. Meditation, observing the mind and discovering its nature, is its fundamental practice. The intention is to gain liberation through seeing the illusory nature of our “mind stuff” so that we can unhook from delusion and dwell in the vastness of awareness.
  • Jnana Yoga: This is the path of study and self-inquiry. In the same way that bhakti yoga is yoga of the heart, jnana yoga is yoga of the mind. It is sometimes to considered to be the most challenging path, because it requires years of intensive study. Jnana yoga is generally enjoyed by the more intellectually inclined.
  • Karma Yoga: Karma means “action.” But that is only half of karma. The other, just as important, half is intention. Karma yoga recognizes the importance of harmonizing our actions with our intentions—aka integrity. Karma yoga also recognizes that all our actions have consequences. Selfless service is among the cornerstone practices of Karma yoga.

Further Exploration in Defining Yoga

Again, I encourage you to look further into each of these branches, how they intersect, and how they might play out in your own life. These small descriptions do not come close to encapsulating the depth and breadth of these life practices.

If you want to take a really deep dive into learning about the yoga tradition and defining yoga read Yoga: Immortality and Freedom by Mircea Eliade. It is not light reading, but it provides an extensive history of yoga’s roots and its many, many branches.

This post is part of our Yoga 101 series, which will give a glimpse into the basics of yoga philosophy and practice. Here’s another post defining yoga from the perspective of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell discovered yoga in 1982 and began teaching in 1986. Charlotte is the author of Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life: A Guide for Everyday Practice and Yoga for Meditators, both published by Rodmell Press. Her third book is titled Hip-Healthy Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Guide to Protecting the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Pain (Shambhala Publications). She writes a monthly column for CATALYST Magazine and serves as editor for Yoga U Online. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte plays oboe and English horn in the Salt Lake Symphony and folk sextet Red Rock Rondo, whose DVD won two Emmy awards.





Source link

Share30Tweet19

Recommended For You

This Wall Yoga Practice Makes a Standard Flow More Accessible

by Your Fitness News Today Staff
May 30, 2025
0
This Wall Yoga Practice Makes a Standard Flow More Accessible

"], "filter": { "nextExceptions": "img, blockquote, div", "nextContainsExceptions": "img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button"} }"> Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on...

Read more

20 Essential Yoga Books

by Your Fitness News Today Staff
May 30, 2025
0
20 Essential Yoga Books

"], "filter": { "nextExceptions": "img, blockquote, div", "nextContainsExceptions": "img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button"} }"> Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on...

Read more

The Moon Salutation Is a Grounding Sister to the Sun Salutation

by Your Fitness News Today Staff
May 30, 2025
0
The Moon Salutation Is a Grounding Sister to the Sun Salutation

"], "filter": { "nextExceptions": "img, blockquote, div", "nextContainsExceptions": "img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button"} }"> Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on...

Read more

Why Restorative Yoga Is Necessary—Especially for Beginners

by Your Fitness News Today Staff
May 29, 2025
0
Why Restorative Yoga Is Necessary—Especially for Beginners

"], "filter": { "nextExceptions": "img, blockquote, div", "nextContainsExceptions": "img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button"} }"> Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on...

Read more

Struggle With Pyramid Pose? You Need to Try This.

by Your Fitness News Today Staff
May 29, 2025
0
Struggle With Pyramid Pose? You Need to Try This.

"], "filter": { "nextExceptions": "img, blockquote, div", "nextContainsExceptions": "img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button"} }"> Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on...

Read more
Next Post
Creating Dedication, Depth, and Devotion • Yoga Basics

Creating Dedication, Depth, and Devotion • Yoga Basics

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Browse by Category

  • Fitness
  • Mental Health
  • Nutrition
  • Skincare
  • Weight Loss
  • Workout
  • Yoga

Recent Posts

  • The Peptide Powerhouse: 11 Reasons Palmitoyl Tripeptide-5 Is One of the Best Peptides for Skin
  • This Wall Yoga Practice Makes a Standard Flow More Accessible
  • 20 Essential Yoga Books
  • What’s the Deal With Beef Tallow? Is It Actually Good for You?
  • Anticholinergics are associated with worse cognition: it’s time to take a serious look at our prescribing

Recent Comments

No comments to show.
RSS Facebook

CATEGORIES:

Your Fitness News Today

Get the latest Health and Fitness News on YourFitnessNewsToday.com.

Wellbeing tips, weight Loss, workouts, and more...

SITE MAP

  • Contact us
  • DMCA
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Copyright © 2024 Your Fitness News Today.
Your Fitness News Today is not responsible for the content of external sites.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Fitness
  • Mental Health
  • Skincare
  • Weight Loss
  • Workout
  • Nutrition
  • Yoga

Copyright © 2024 Your Fitness News Today.
Your Fitness News Today is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In